At present the method of choice for removing decayed dentin and other structure in a dental caries associated with a cavity, preparatory to filling the tooth, is a mechanical dental drill. The dental drill is guided by a dentist to drill into a tooth until all remnants of the caries are separated from the healthy dentin. Thereafter a low pressure water jet or air spray is used to wash or remove the caries material from the tooth. The process involved entails a certain degree of inevitable pain as a result of small portions of healthy dentin being removed as well. In addition, the high pitched whine of a dental drill is often accompanied by psychological trauma of the patient. In fact, fear of the dental drill is a major reason that people in need of dental care postpone visits to a dentist.
Recently research has involved the use of lasers to selectively burn out the caries prior to filling of the tooth. Though the lasers are silent they nevertheless also inevitably remove a small portion of healthy dentin.
With prior art methods of caries removal, the process is slow and requires pauses for inspection of the cavity (to ascertain the stage of removal) since during drilling, the caries is not visible.